Braithwaite

[eric]

Should anyone fancy a trip up to Braithwaite, have a walk or drive along Whinfield Drive, where the old flats used to be, carefully look at the wall against Braithwaite Road, If you look carefully you will see a Archway and two windows bricked up. What I would like to know is why they are there? Bothe the archway and the windows are below the level of Braithwaite Road, so would serve no practical purpose, The brickwork designates them from 2 different periods, the archway being considerably older. The wall appears to be of a single course, and not substantial enough for a building wall. So why go to the trouble of building windows in the first place, the archway may be a interior feature, but the rough stonework is more suitable and the style of arch, to outdoors. I would be interested in any opinions.

[eric]

Looking at the map on the site you linked, it will be just above the double L in Low Whin Knowll, just to the side of the present Braithwaite School, I believe there was a farm there up until the early 1960's, but that doesn't explain why windows face into the earth.

[Andy Wade]

Is it just above the first 'L' in Low Whin Knoll?

That would place it around the position of the two buildings that are no longer there on the new map, and just where the old flats used to be:



Note the bump in Braithwaite Road which would have once gone around the two buildings. If this is the spot, then it's a remnant of these buildings:

[eric]

Yes, that looks like the place, but that doesn't explain why the windows and arch are BELOW the level of the road, from the road side, all that is visible is the top of the window, and the wall doesn't appear to be thick enough to be a building wall, I think the place used to be called Emmotts farm.

[Andy Wade]

I would guess that it's probably just because the level of a whole length of Braithwaite Road has been raised. Maybe they were cellar windows that were partly below ground during the life of the house, which could have been extended with brick or altered early on in its life, that would explain the different styles of construction.
Braithwaite Road would most probably have started out life as a track across the fields towards Laycock and its only with modern road construction methods that raising the level and adding things such as a drainage system and camber have been necessary. Between the words 'Low' and Whin' on the 1852 map there's a road which doesn't even exist now as it has been swallowed up with the development of Braithwaite estate. There aren't even any parch marks on the satellite view showing where it used to be.
I am going to have to take a look at this though, it's very intriguing. Pictures are going to be needed for Jan's archives.
Well spotted Eric.

[Admin]

Yes please Andy..................thank you so much for bringing this to our attention.............Good to have you back on board Eric..................always one for a mystery......................

Thanks Andy for those fabulous images...............

Jan

[Andy Wade]

OK, I've been up there this morning and as Eric says there are indeed arches and lintels in the walls supporting the road.

I've taken a few pictures and done a little investigation and a few things came to light.

This is an old building of some note. On the road side there are iron fixings held in with lead which look to me like metal gate/fence fixings so that implies a boundary to a property.
There is a well defined mason's mark which is a 'height' benchmark:



The ends are quoined which means large dressed blocks of stone define the corners of the building, something that to me indicates something substantial or a need for decoration. So rather than being a cheaply built farm outbuilding it looks like it was a house (or possibly a mill) wall. look at the quality of that stone dressing folks, this cost a bit more than normal to make. The stone with the benchmark has been dressed with rilled edges and a punch faced field, which means that some time has been taken over it.

Now to the arch:



This is actually a cheap way to put an opening in a building as it doesn't require the cost of a large stone lintel, so I reckon it's the inner wall, this is reflected by the poor quality stone around it and the white remnants of limewashing on the stonework.

This is what is on the road side of the wall in line with it:



As you can see it's a dressed stone lintel and the surrounding stone looks more like an outer wall. Note that the road level is about half way up this doorway, (it's not a window).

There are a couple of other blocked up windows on both sides of the wall, all equally spaced and they appear to be contemporary with the original construction.

I also noted that the wall suporting the road towards the Laycock end has had two or three different stages of construction, indicated by differing stone types and coursing, possibly to repair damage or to keep up with the raising of the causeway level.

I say again Eric, well spotted. I've driven past this many times and never noticed it. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled in future. ;D

[eric]

With regard to the possibility of the road level being raised, the idea also crossed my mind, but 50 yards further up on Braithwaite road on the opposite side is a well or Horse trough, if the road had been raised by 5ft or so, that well would have been at head height for a man, and too high for a horse to drink from and I still think the walls would need to be double thickness at least to be substantial enough to support a roof on a building. and if I remember right, the archway isnt seen on the Braithwaite road side.

[Andy Wade]

The wall is double thickness. You only have to look at the coping stones to see this as they are 2 feet wide:



The arch is backed up by the stone lintel on the outer face. They line up precisely. I sat on the wall top this morning and looked over in the spot where the large stone lintel is positioned, the archway is on the other side.
It's quite likely that the original road was just a single farm/droving track and has been widened in modern times by filling in between the building walls and the original road edge. All sorts of possibilties could be envisaged to explain this.